Health Housing News and Events

06 Mar 2018

Professor David Ormandy talks to Kathryn Ryan about the Housing Health and Safety Rating System – a scheme he developed which has been used for over ten years and is credited with raising housing standards in England and Wales. The HHSRS has also been adopted in the U.S. and has inspired the University of Otago, He Kainga Oranga, the Housing and Health Research Programme’s rental warrant of fitness. David is also contributing to the early stages of the Grenfell Tower inquiry. Please Listen

12 Feb 2018

Commissioned by Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford and released today, A Stocktake of New Zealand’s Housing assesses the entire housing continuum from home ownership and market renting, to state housing and homelessness, and the social cost of substandard housing.

He Kainga Oranga, the Housing and Health Programme Director Phillipa Howden-Chapman is one of the report authors , she emphasised a widening gap between homeowners and renters, one that particularly hurt Pasifika people.

“If you own a house, as half of New Zealand adults do, then you’ve done very well over the last decade. If you don’t you haven’t,” Howden-Chapman said. Please Readfor more details

20 Dec 2017

He Kainga Oranga, the Housing and Health Research Programme and NZ Center for Sustanable Cities will offer two short courses at Public Health Summer School University of Otago

22 Sep 2017

The rental WOF developed by Otago University and the NZ Green Building Council was recently introduced by the Wellington City Council. The Rental WOF sets minimum standards for energy efficiency, health and safety for all residential rental properties, but federation members think it will raise rents and make some landlords quit the market. Please read Philippa Howden-Chapman: Without standards, renters get less for more

19 Sep 2017

A new book sets out important ideas for helping New Zealand cities resolve the challenges of providing quality, affordable housing, designing healthy transport systems and dealing with climate change.

Cities in New Zealand: Preferences, patterns and possibilities has multiple authors and was edited by Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman, Jenny Ombler and Dr Lisa Early, of the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities, hosted at the University of Otago, Wellington. Please Read for more details.

08 Sep 2017

The study by the University of Otago in Wellington compared the homes of 150 children who had visited their GPs for a first prescription of asthma medication with those of 300 children who had never experienced the wheezing associated with asthma.

Dr Caroline Shorter said while it had long been known that damp and mould made asthma worse, this was one of the first studies to show those conditions might actually be causing the illness.

04 Sep 2017

Nearly a third of New Zealand households struggle with “energy hardship” – paying their power bills, heating their home, mould and dampness.

The figure was released today by Statistics New Zealand in a first of its kind study, which also found the situation is much worse for renters and low-income families.

Professor Philippa Howden Chapman, said her colleagues in the United States, Europe and Australia give energy hardship “a lot of attention, but this problem doesn’t appear in any energy policy documents in New Zealand”. Please Read here for more details